


Quinta Essentia

by navochao



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: AU where Zuko finds Aang instead, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, will update tags as this goes on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-28
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:49:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 18,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24551881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/navochao/pseuds/navochao
Summary: Zuko was given a very clear mission: bring the Avatar back to the Fire Nation, restore your honor.The world had a funny way of making his life miserable, but in the wake of his third year of searching, he finally got some stroke of luck.But he didn't exactly sign up to capture a 12 year old. Actually, he didn't sign up for this at all.
Comments: 42
Kudos: 187





	1. Book One: Steam | Part One

Prince Zuko was getting exhausted from being surrounded by ice. The South Pole was freezing, and the time of day was abnormal. Normally he would wake up with the sun, but when the sun decided to be out all the time, Zuko just felt restless. So he was laying on his bed, under what was probably about 20 blankets, trying to at least take a nap.

Before the ship ran right into something.

Zuko nearly hit his head on the wall, sitting up and glaring at the door to his quarters. This entire mission was already a complete disaster, but now they might as well let the ship sink so that it could be over.

_ But no one would even realize we had died, _ Zuko thought as he shoved away the excess amount of blankets.

He got up, slamming the door open so it would be out of his way as he stormed up to the deck of the ship to see what happened and who he needed to throw off his ship.

“Oh, Prince Zuko! There you are! How was your nap?”

Zuko ignored his uncle, turning to the nearest crewmember. “What happened?”

“We hit something, I think.” The crewmember pointed at an iceberg at the front of the ship. “Didn’t damage anything as far as we can tell.”

“We’re firebenders. A little ice can’t stop us.” The prince walked up to the bow of the ship, looking at the iceberg in front of him. It was more than ‘a little’ ice, and it looked like there was something- or more specifically, someone inside. “Come help me melt this thing so we can keep going.”

A couple more crew members came to his side, melting the ice with ease with their firebending. But before they could really make any progress, something inside of the ice began to glow, and the firebenders stopped to watch as the ice shattered in front of them, revealing a young boy and some type of giant animal. 

“What do you want us to do, Zuko?”

Zuko looked over the edge, at the remains of the ice on the water, at the boy who had apparently been frozen. Something caught his eye, and he climbed on top of the edge with intentions to jump down and inspect further. “You stay there, I’m going to go take a closer look.”

Some of the ice had made a semi manageable way down to what was left of the giant iceberg, so Zuko slid down, careful not to slide right off into the freezing water.

He carefully approached the kid, taking a good look at him. 

“The Avatar,” Zuko kneeled down, inspecting the tattoo on his forehead. He had never seen airbending tattoos before, but based on all descriptions this looked like the real deal to him. “I can’t believe I’ve done it.”

The young boy's eyes opened, looking right at Zuko, and making the young prince jump up in surprise. “Done what?”

“I, uh-” Zuko watched as the young boy sat up and looked around at his surroundings. He had to think fast. “You’re alive?”

The avatar lifted his arms, looking at them as if to make sure they were still attached. “Last I checked, anyway. Why?”

“You were just in an iceberg!” Zuko gestured around, pointing at the remains behind them where there was still a giant animal sleeping. “Most people don’t live when that happens.”

“Why was I in an iceberg?” The young Avatar pushed himself to his feet. “Hey, while we’re here though, do you want to go penguin sledding?”

“Do I want to go what?”

The Avatar took a look at the person he was talking to, realizing the person he was talking to wasn’t exactly from around here. “Oh! You’re Fire Nation. I guess you don’t really have penguins there, do you?”

“Not exactly.” Zuko crossed his arms. “You’re…”

“Air Nomad, my name is Aang.” Aang waved. “What’s your name?”

“Zuko.” He neglected to fill in any more information, opting to point behind the Avatar-  _ Aang _ , at the creature behind him. “Is that thing yours?”

“What?” Aang turned around, before jumping up and floating on top of the creature still in the ice. “Appa! We made it buddy!”

“Appa.” Zuko crossed his arms again, watching Appa climb out of the ice with Aang on his back- neck? Something. “What is it?”

“Appa’s a flying bison!” Aang pet the top of Appa’s head. “The best one around.”

“There is no way that thing can fly.” 

“Of course he can, that’s why he’s called a  _ flying _ bison. How else do you think I got here?”

“Well I got here on a ship.” Zuko gestured to the giant ship behind him. “So there are other ways.”

“Oh, cool, a Fire Navy ship!” Aang jumped off of Appa, getting closer to the ship to take a look at it. “I haven’t seen one of these in a long time, and I’ve never been on one.”

“Well today’s your lucky day, I guess. I’ll give you a ride out of here.” Zuko kept his eye on Aang, who was a little busy gawking up at the ship to even realize. 

“Oh, thanks! But I have Appa.” Aang smiled, jumping back on to Appa’s back and grabbing his reins. “It was nice meeting you Zuko, but I have to get back home!”

“Wait, you can’t just-”

“Appa, yip yip!” Aang shook the reins, and Appa stood there for a moment, before laying down on his belly. “Appa?”

Appa groaned, closing his eyes. 

“I think your bison is a little tired.”

“Come on, Appa! We just took a nap, and we need to go back to the Southern Air Temple. Everyone’s probably worried,” Aang jumped off, looking at Appa before sitting down in front of him on the ice. “You really are tired, aren’t you?”

Zuko rolled his eyes, not very impressed with the bison so far. “My offer still stands.” 

“Okay, we’ll go with you until Appa is more rested!” Aang jumped up, and Appa’s eyes opened up. “So, how do you get on that thing?”

Zuko turned around, realizing that the ice was definitely more of a one way ticket down onto this iceberg. “Uh. Not like this.”

“Well, in that case,” Aang jumped back onto Appa, this time onto his saddle, lifting something up into the air.

“Oh, hooray, you have a stick.”

“Not just a stick, it’s a glider!” The stick Aang was holding had wings pop out of the sides, and Aang held onto the top of it before jumping off Appa’s back again, gliding up into the air.

Zuko couldn’t believe what he was seeing, watching Aang fly around in the sky, downright showing off, before landing onto the deck of the ship. He could only imagine what the rest of the crew was thinking about all of this. 

Of course, he was still stuck on the iceberg.

“Mind giving me a hand here? Anybody?” Zuko shouted up at the ship before a crew member looked over the edge, before quickly disappearing again. “Thanks for the help.”

Aang looked over the edge, pointing his stick-glider-thing at the bison. “Climb on Appa, he’ll give you a lift!”

“There is no way I’m getting on that thing.”

“Then I guess you’re stuck down there, huh?” 

Zuko opened his mouth to protest, but decided spending two seconds on the bison was a lot better than losing his cool in front of his entire crew (as if he hadn’t done so multiple times before), so he sulked over to the bison and climbed up into the saddle as gracefully as he could. Which, all things considered, wasn’t very graceful. 

“Okay Appa, come up here! Yip yip!” 

Appa growled, hitting his tail against the ice before leaping up into the air for a brief moment, landing on the deck of the ship. 

Zuko, for the record, totally did not scream and hold on to the saddle for dear life. That would just be absurd.

He quickly climbed off of Appa, who laid down right then and there, glaring at the couple of crew members who had decided that laughing at him was the correct course of action. They stopped laughing as soon as they noticed, standing up slightly straighter than they had before.

_ Yeah, thought so. _

“See, it wasn't so bad! And I told you Appa could fly.” Aang grinned, in a surprisingly not very ‘I told you so’ way. It was just a grin, as far as Zuko could tell. “Thanks for the ride.”

“Yeah. Don’t mention it.” Zuko turned around, walking around Appa and over to his uncle, who had been standing away from all the commotion, seemingly not even paying attention.

He looked up from his game, obviously clueless to what luck they had just ran into.“So, is the ship stuck?”

Zuko dropped his voice to a whisper. “We found the avatar, uncle. We’re going home."


	2. Book One: Steam | Part Two

For being a prisoner, the avatar seemed very nonchalant about everything.

Well, if Zuko was going to give him any credit (which he was not going to do, but, just hypothetically) Aang didn’t actually  _ know _ he was being held prisoner on a Fire Navy ship. He didn’t seem to know that there was anything wrong at the Southern Air Temple. He acted like everything was right in the world.

Zuko found himself leaning up against a wall, staring at the avatar and his bison as they sat on the deck and ate some lunch. He wanted to keep an eye on them, at least, that’s what he had told the rest of the crew when they asked why the hell he wouldn’t let this kid out of his sight. 

_ He can fly. So can that bison. Being in the middle of a freezing cold ocean wont stop this kid from running off again. _ Zuko was silently planning a worst case scenario, where the young avatar got away.

“So, how long have you been out at sea?” 

Zuko snapped out of his thoughts, dragging himself down to reality where the avatar was on their ship and had no idea what was happening. And he was going to keep it that way. “A couple of months.”

“You look pretty young to be commanding a ship,” Aang pointed out. It was a fair point. He was a bit too young, even for Fire Nation standards. “But I guess I’m pretty young to be the avatar.”

“You can’t be older than 14.” Zuko decided his best tactics were to avoid any questions that could make him seem suspicious. Focus on Aang. 

Focusing on Aang didn’t seem to be working out well, though. He turned away, avoiding eye contact and staring at the ground. “I’m 12.”

“So how do you know you’re the avatar? They don’t tell people that until the avatar is 16.”

“They’re not supposed to.” 

“So why did the  _ Air Nomads _ of all people break that rule”

“Something bad was going to happen,” Aang sounded like he just remembered something, something important. “They told me because we didn’t have much time before, before-” 

_ Before Sozin wiped out all the Air Nomads to try and kill the Avatar.  _ Zuko filled in the blanks in his mind. “So how did you end up in the South Pole?”

“That’s where I am?” Aang stood up, looking around the ship’s surroundings. Ice everywhere.

“Yeah.” Zuko raised an eyebrow. “How did you get out here in the first place? I mean, what is an Air Nomad doing… here. Avatar or not.” He was going to say that there weren’t any waterbenders to learn from, but that wasn’t true as far as Aang was aware, so he bit his tongue and tried to avoid mistakes like that.

Aang lost himself in thought for a moment, as if he was trying to remember why he was there. Which was weird, but hey, maybe being in an iceberg gave you amnesia or something.

After some thinking about it, Aang frowned, kind of slumping and avoiding eye contact. “I ran away. I didn’t want to be the avatar.”

“Anyone would kill to be the avatar,” A bit of an exaggeration, but most people were lucky to be benders at all in some cases. Almost anyone would want to be able to bend all four elements. “But I guess they don’t understand the responsibility.”

“I didn’t even start on any of my other training yet. I only know how to airbend.” 

“Are you any good at it?” 

The look on Aang’s face told Zuko that he had chosen the wrong words. “I didn’t earn these arrows for nothing!”

Zuko didn’t get it, but he couldn’t just tell him that. That would tell him that something was wrong- at least, that’s what Zuko assumed. And nothing could be wrong, they just had to pretend that everything was fine. There was no war. The Air Nomads still existed. 

So Zuko laughed, hoping that would hide the genuine confusion. “I was just kidding.”

Aang didn’t look relieved. Just kind of confused. 

There was some more silence between them. The rest of the crew had decided to stay out of the prince’s way, because after a while of  _ them _ being confused out of their minds, someone finally noticed that the avatar was just about as clueless as can be about everything, including that Zuko was any threat to him. And if they happened to blow it? Well, they better hope they could swim.

So Zuko didn’t move from his spot. He wanted to keep an eye on the avatar, which was easy when all he wanted to do was look at all the ice. He was curious. Acted like he had never been to the South Pole before, which, given the fact that he was 12, was probably the case. 

Aang was leaning over the edge of the ship, looking at something in the distance, when he finally broke the silence. 

He didn’t even bother to turn around, continuing to stare off at the horizon. “You’re a firebender, right?”

“What makes you say that?”

“You’re commanding a Fire Navy ship,” Aang shrugged, turning around and resting his elbows on the railing of the ship. “Only firebenders are given command of stuff.  _ Good _ firebenders.”

Zuko frowned at the word ‘good’. But he ignored it. “For an Air Nomad you sure know a lot about the Fire Nation.”

“One of my best friends is from the Fire Nation! His name is Kuzon.” Aang smiled, and Zuko felt a pang of… something. Maybe guilt, that his friend was most likely not alive anymore. But that wasn’t Zuko’s fault, so why would he feel guilty? “I used to visit all the time.”

“I’m a firebender.” That’s as much as he was willing to admit, but Zuko should have known that the avatar was going to ask more questions. 

“So what did you do to get command of a ship so young- you must be a pretty good firebender.”

Zuko’s stomach twisted around. He felt like he was going to throw up. Or shout his lungs out. One of the two. “I’m not that young, I’m 16.”

“That’s pretty young for Fire Nation.”

“My parents are important. It’s nothing I did.” Not entirely lies. 

“Oh, right, I forgot about that,” Aang looked disappointed in himself for forgetting something like  _ family _ , but from the limited knowledge of the Air Nomads anybody had, Zuko couldn’t really blame him for forgetting something like that. Besides, it’s not exactly like the four nations ever were super close. “Why are you out in the South Pole?”

“Training.” Not lies. Zuko was many things, but a liar was not going to be put on that list. “I doubt the Fire Lord would mind if we turned around to help you out.”

“It’s summer, isn’t it?” Aang stood up again, looking up at the sky. The sun has been out a while. The ship was out here for training. “I was in there… a while, wasn’t I?”

Zuko tried not to show his shock. And fear. Lot’s of fear. He had no idea when the avatar disappeared. No one knows when he disappeared. Obviously he hadn’t disappeared in the summer, or he wouldn’t be so confused. “I’m not sure. I didn’t even know you were here.”

“It was night. I think.” He seemed strained, trying to remember  _ anything _ that could help him out. “If it’s summer. It’s been nearly a year. At least. I don’t know.” 

Zuko didn’t move, just watching him try to figure this out. “Maybe you should sleep. If your bison was tired, you’re probably tired too. I can show you a place you can sleep for a while. It’ll be dark. You won’t even notice it’s still light out.”

Aang nodded, so Zuko opened up the door that led down to the lower decks. He held it open for him before following him in, but the airbender still ended up trailing behind because he had no idea where he was even going.

“You guys don’t get much sleep while you’re out here, do you?”

_ He thinks we’re only out here for the summer. He doesn’t realize that we’ve also been through the exact opposite.  _ “Yeah, it’s a little rough. That’s training for you.” Zuko opened up one of the empty rooms, holding the door open with his foot. “You can sleep here for now. If you need anything, I’ll be down the hall. You can’t miss my room.”

“Thanks,” Aang stared at the room, all Fire Nationed out. If Zuko had any situational awareness, he’d realize that the kid was uncomfortable. “You don’t have to do this for me.”

“You’re the avatar,” Zuko shrugged. “Anyone else would do the same.”

Still no lies.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I want to say thanks for all the positive reception from Chapter 1! I'm excited people like this as much as I do.   
> I'm generally going to be following the flow/plot of the show, just turning it on it's head a bit. I don't know if I'll end up with 64 chapters, but I might, so who the heck knows.


	3. Book One: Steam | Part Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the part where everything goes from 0 to 100 real quick. Thank you to everyone who's read so far, much love.

The night was restless. Nights in the poles were always restless, but this one was especially awful.

_ I found the avatar. After years of searching, I can go home. _

Zuko found himself staring up at the ceiling, just thinking about home. No more extreme South Pole seasons, no more being stuck on a ship for months. 

He barely got any sleep between the pull of the sun to stay awake and the thought of home, so when he heard a loud bang against the door, he couldn’t even complain that it woke him up. Everyone was already awake. Well, everyone except for the airbender.

Zuko grumbled at he pulled himself out of bed, dragging his feet to the door before opening it up and looking at who had the  _ audacity  _ to-

Oh. Right. 

“You were right, that door was hard to miss.” Aang tapped on the door with his glider-stick-thing. “Appa and I are going to head off to the Southern Air Temple now.”

“What?!” Well that was a little overeager. Zuko paused a moment, mentally calming himself down. As much as he could, anyway. “You can’t! I mean, you can’t leave yet.”

“We’re pretty close to the temple already, and a ship can’t get up to it,” He shrugged, very ‘what can you do?’ “Thanks for the ride, sorry for barging in on your training.”

“I’m not sure heading to the Southern Air Temple is a good idea,” 

“Why not?”

_ Yeah, o wise one, why not?  _ “Well, uh, you haven’t come up with an alibi yet for why you were gone so long.”

Aang stared back at him for a moment, searching his face to try and figure out if he was kidding.

It was too early for this.

“Why would I need an alibi, I’ll just tell them I was in an iceberg.” 

“For a year? Are they going to believe that?”

“Well, you were there! You can back me up!”

“Ships can't get to the Southern Air Temple, remember?” 

“I’ll just take you up on Appa! Have you ever been to the Southern Air Temple before?”

_ Yes. Looking for you.  _ “Uh, on the way here we stopped by.” Zuko could feel himself tense up. That wasn’t a lie, technically. But it was close.

“It’s awesome, you’re going to love it.” Aang grabbed Zuko’s wrist, catching him off guard before dragging him through the ship and up to the top deck. 

Zuko could barely hold any form of composure to keep himself from singeing the kid right then and there. He wasn’t a fan of being dragged around. “I’m not taking a ride on that bison again.”

“Come on, Appa’s not that bad! You’ll get used to it.” 

Zuko frowned. “Why would I need to get used to it. I have a ship.”

“Hop on!” Aang jumped up, landing on Appa and grabbing the reins. “We’ll be there before you know it.”

Zuko was hesitant. And not just because he knew what was waiting for them at the Southern Air Temple. The thought of being on that bison terrified him, and he wasn’t quite sure why. He had nothing to fear- he was a firebender, he was  _ Prince Zuko! _ But a stupid bison was where he drew the line.

“I’m not sure.”

“You won't fall off, if that’s what you’re worried about.” 

_ I wish that was the only thing I was worried about. _ Zuko caved, climbing into the saddle on the back of the bison, crossing his arms and avoiding looking at Aang at all. 

“Alright, hold on tight! Appa, yip yip!”

The bison took off flying, and Zuko watched as the ship disappeared into the distance, and then into the clouds.

The prince was laying on his back, staring up at the sky and trying not to think about the fact they were easily hundreds, maybe thousands of feet off of the ground. And on a giant flying bison. Heading towards the  _ Southern Air Temple  _ of all places. So far, absolutely nothing was going right.

“Appa, you know where to go, right buddy?” Appa growled in confirmation, and Aang climbed back into the saddle, sitting down and looking at the very anxious firebender. “You’re not asleep, are you?”

“Couldn’t be if I wanted to.” Zuko pointed up at the sky. “Sun’s out.”

“You didn’t get much sleep at all last night, did you?” 

“Not as much as I would have wanted. I’m used to it.” You spend enough time out at sea, and you get used to things you wish you wouldn’t have to. He refused to sit up, because he didn’t want to be reminded of the impending doom. “So you grew up at the Southern Air Temple.”

Aang nodded “Yup! It’s pretty great... I hope things aren’t too different.”

Something flared up in Zuko’s chest. It felt like he just got punched in the gut, but that wasn’t possible. “Aang, uh-”

Zuko was cut off by Appa growling, and Aang turned around “Oh! There it is! You’re going to have to get up some time soon, Zuko.” 

It didn’t take long for Aang to realize that something was very wrong. There was no one in the air surrounding the temple, and it looked more run down than it should be, even if it had been abandoned for a whole year. Zuko didn’t even need to sit up to know that there was something terribly wrong with the place, and he really did not want to see the look on the airbenders face.

“What, where is everybody?” 

“Maybe they’re inside.” 

Appa landed, and Zuko reluctantly slid down to solid ground, slowly following Aang around the temple. 

“This- there’s something wrong here. Something happened.” He ran ahead, leaving Zuko no choice but to pick up his own pace or else get completely lost. “What happened here?”

Zuko didn’t respond. Maybe silence could be read as arrogance instead of an admission of guilt. 

He kept following the avatar around as he investigated, looking everywhere possible for any sign of human life at all. Obviously, there was none to be found. But Aang kept looking. 

Zuko wanted to say something, anything to get Aang to agree to get out of here and go back on the ship. Maybe this time he could think to lock the kid in his room, so he can’t get out and figure out what’s actually gone on. 

But for now, all he did was follow him around. 

The pair climbed up the mountain, eventually reaching a courtyard of some kind, with a statue in the middle.

“Gyatso,” Aang’s voice wasn’t much louder than a whisper, but Zuko could still hear it with the dead silence sitting in the air. “Gyatso was my airbending teacher. He taught me everything I know.”

Zuko stared at the statue for a moment. The statue made the monk look kind, like he wouldn’t hurt a fly. That seemed in line for what he knew about airbenders, and what he had figured out from Aang so far.

_ So why did we kill them all? _

Easy, they needed to kill the avatar.

_ But why- _

His thoughts were cut short by Aang speaking up again. “Let’s go, I have someone I need to meet.”

Zuko was glad for the break in his train of thought, following Aang deeper into the temple. He seemed to know where he was going, even after all this time, and if all else failed they could always brute force their way out.

“You brought me to a door.”

“This is the entrance to the Air Temple Sanctuary. Apparently there’s someone in here who’s going to help me.”

Zuko didn’t get it, but then again, he wasn’t the avatar. So he just sat back and watched as Aang opened up the door. 

Something told him that he needed to stay out, but he walked right in anyway.

“A bunch of statues?”

“I think they’re important,” Aang looked at each one, weaving in between them all and taking a close look at each and every one.

“Air, water, earth, fire.” Zuko stopped in front of the last statue, staring up at it. It creeped him out.

“The avatar cycle,” Aang stopped right next to Zuko, also staring up at the last statue, a firebender. “These must be the past avatars.”

“So this is Avatar Roku.” No wonder it gave Zuko the creeps. Avatar Roku was hardly treated well by Fire Nation history. An avatar who let power get to his head and betrayed Fire Lord Sozin, what is there to like about the guy?

“That’s him.” Aang seemed lost in thought, staring into the eyes of the statue of Avatar Roku, before the sound of someone walking into the sanctuary snapped him out of his trance, causing both him and Zuko to turn around.

But it turned out to just be a lemur. “Oh, hey little guy.”

The lemur stood there in complete shock before hightailing it out of the sanctuary. But apparently Aang wasn’t ready to lose out on a new friend, and ran right on out after him.

“Aang, wait- oh great.” Zuko’s calls to Aang went unanswered, so he had no choice but to run after him, or lose his ride off this floating nightmare.

Zuko could barely keep up with the kid, he was so fast and apparently never ran out of breath. Eventually he caught up to him, running into some old disheveled building.

“Aang, did you find that lemur-” Pulling back one of the curtains used as a door, the first thing that Zuko saw was firebender armor. “Oh no.”

Zuko took a step into the room, at first trying to count how many firebenders were here before running out of patience, instead focusing on Aang, who was in turn focused on the only other airbender in the room.

_ That necklace,  _ Zuko thought back to the statue Aang had shown him before they entered the sanctuary. “Aang?”

He didn’t respond, but Zuko could swear he heard him sobbing. After a moment, his tattoos started glowing, and he became surrounded in a large gust of wind, nearly knocking Zuko over.

“Aang! Snap out of it!” Zuko tried to hold his ground, but it was becoming increasingly more and more and more difficult as the avatar began to float into the air. “C’mon, you’re going to destroy what’s left of this place!”

_ It’s no use. There’s no way he’d listen to a firebender of all people. Especially not right now. _

But, to his surprise, Aang did calm down. Slowly falling back down to earth, the wind dying down around him until everything was back to being calm as can be.

He stood there for a moment, before the glowing subsided, and he collapsed to the ground.

Zuko rushed forward, not necessarily to  _ catch _ him, he wasn’t that fast, but maybe to try and console him. It was a lot of emotions, it was no wonder he started… glowing. That’s  _ got  _ to be an avatar thing. 

“Firebenders killed Gyatso,” Aang sounded weak, maybe even broken. “You knew about this, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Zuko frowned, trying to hold back the truth, before ultimately failing at even doing  _ that _ . He was awful at keeping secrets. “Aang, it’s been a bit longer than just one year. It’s actually been closer to one hundred.”

Aang’s eyes widened, and he pushed himself upright. “One hundred years? I’ve been gone that long?”

Zuko didn’t say anything, just nodding his head barely enough for anyone to notice. Not like Aang was even looking at him in the first place.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know how to. What was I supposed to say? ‘Hey, avatar, you’ve been in there for a hundred years and all your people are dead because the Fire Nation killed them all!’? You would have killed me on the spot.” 

“I wouldn’t have killed you.” Aang mumbled. “Is that why you didn’t want me to come here? So I wouldn’t find out?” 

_ Think, think.  _ “I didn’t want you to find out this way.”  _ That’s pretty close to the truth. _

“I’m the last airbender, aren’t I? They found the other temples too.” Aang put his hand to the ground. There wasn’t any dust or soot left, since he cleared that all away with his avatar enhanced panic attack. “What am I supposed to do?”

Zuko didn’t say anything. He had to think. Think of a way to get Aang back on his ship. Think of a way to make his chest stop hurting. Think of a way to keep Aang on his side. 

“You could finish your avatar training.” 

Aang looked at Zuko, who was staring off into the distance. “Huh? My avatar training?”

“Yeah. You said you hadn’t finished that yet, right? I could take you to the North Pole so you could learn waterbending.” Zuko felt his shoulders slump. He felt small. That was new. 

“Why should I trust you! You’re a firebender- your people did this!” Aang gestured to the surrounding area, and Zuko must have flinched because he very quickly backed down. “I’m sorry. You didn’t do this. You’ve only been trying to help me this entire time.”

_ That’s one way to put it.  _ Zuko took a deep breath. “It’s up to you.”

“The Fire Lord!” 

“What?”

“What will he say if he finds out you left the South Pole? We should try to find a waterbending teacher here-”

“We can’t.” Zuko said bluntly. “There are no waterbenders in the South Pole.”

Aang's silence and contemplation told Zuko to continue on with the explanations. “When you disappeared, the Fire Nation wasn’t sure if you were still alive or dead, so they went to the poles to try and get rid of all the waterbenders as well. Just in case.” 

“Oh.”

“They didn’t do a great job at the up north, though, so there’s plenty of waterbenders who can teach you at the North Pole.”

“They won’t trust you if you show up looking like that in your ship.”

“We can figure that out on the way.” 

Aang stood up, offering a hand to Zuko. 

Zuko stared at it for a moment. Was this him trying to say he trusted the prince? Or was this a trick. He had no idea. Based on their conversation, it was kind of leaning towards Aang actually accepting his help. 

Zuko took his hand, and got pulled up to his feet.

“I guess we don’t have much time to lose then.”

“Guess not.”

The ride back onto the ship was quiet. And it was still light as hell out, which drove Zuko mad. He was in much of a rush to get out of the South Pole as quickly as possible.

But they’d be going right up to another pole. 

At least they’d have a couple weeks worth of normal days in between. 

When they landed, Zuko made a beeline for the captain. 

“Change of plans,” Zuko had his arms crossed as he was leaning up against a doorframe. “We’re going to the North Pole.”

“Prince Zuko, why-”

“We need to get the avatar a waterbending teacher.” 


	4. Book One: Steam | Part Four

This was a mistake. Huge mistake. Biggest mistake of his life- and that was saying something.

Zuko had been nervously pacing back and forth ever since he had ordered the ship to change course for the Northern Water Tribe, and no one had been able to get up the courage to go up to him and even ask him if he was okay. Not that anyone needed to ask, he was obviously stressed out of his mind. But there was a courtesy to these things.

So there he was, pacing around on the top deck of the ship, staring at the ground, and trying his best to not pay attention to how sick he felt. That couldn’t be seasickness, because he had been on a ship for three years at this point. He hadn’t been sea sick for a while. He was just that nervous.

“Prince Zuko, maybe you should sit down,” His uncle Iroh had been one of the only people on the ship to attempt to calm him down, and it hadn’t been working out too well. “Have some tea.”

“I do NOT need tea!” Zuko stopped pacing to turn to his uncle, who was sitting with a cup of tea in his hands. 

“Well, you should at least sit down.” Iroh gestured to the spot in front of him. “You’ve been pacing all morning. 

Zuko didn’t  _ really  _ want to sit down, but he also didn’t really have the energy to argue. He hadn’t slept well, if at all, the past couple of days. So he sat down, and Iroh began pouring him a cup of tea anyway. 

“How are you feeling?”

“I’m  _ fine. _ ” Zuko took the tea he was handed,but didn’t take a drink, instead just staring at it in the cup. “It’s a short detour. Then we will take him to the Fire Nation.”

“Oh, will we,” Iroh took a drink of tea, contemplating the situation that Zuko had put himself in. “Why are we going to the North Pole in the first place, if we are going to end up taking him to the Fire Lord anyway?”

The prince opened his mouth to respond, but no words came out. He wasn’t sure, admittedly. Why was he taking Aang to the North Pole?

“You feel guilty.”

“I had been to the Southern Air Temple before,” Was Zuko telling this to Iroh, or to himself? “There’s no reason for me to feel guilty about any of this now.”

“You didn’t know Aang when you went before.”

“I don’t even know him now! He’s just some kid I found in an iceberg, with a giant bison.” Zuko quickly realized he wasn’t even going to drink this tea and set it down completely. “I don’t feel guilty.”

Iroh picked up Zuko’s cup, pouring the tea into his own cup before setting it aside. “Then what changed your mind on where we were taking him?”

“I- If I hadn’t offered to take him to the North Pole… he wouldn’t have gotten back on the ship?”

“You say this as if you don’t believe in the abilities of your men, that they can’t track down and capture a pascifict twelve year old.” 

“We haven’t seen him fight.  _ You  _ haven’t seen what he’s capable of!”

“So, you’re scared of him?”

“No!”

“Then, Zuko, why did you offer to take him to the North Pole?” 

“He’s… a threat.”

“To who?”

“To us! At least, if he thinks we're on his side, we won't get caught up in everything that's going to happen if the Fire Nation finds out we found him.”  _ When  _ the Fire Nation finds out. “At least, for a while.”

“But you still plan on turning him in?”

“No- I- I don’t  _ know _ , uncle. I don’t know what I plan on doing! That’s why I’m so- so  _ sick. _ ”

“You feel sick?” Iroh reached over to him, placing his palm on his forehead. “You feel warmer than usual.”

“I don’t know how I feel,” Zuko mumbled, swatting away his uncle's hand. “I’ll be fine once we get this over with.”

“This is a long commitment, Prince Zuko,” Iroh picked some of his tea stuff up, standing up and gesturing for Zuko to do the same. “You need to rest.”

“Why do you always act like you know what’s best for me?”

“Because I’m old.” Iroh shrugged, still waiting for Zuko to stand up.

Eventually, he did. Reluctantly, yes, but he did stand up. He sulked past his crazy uncle, opening the door to the lower decks, and slamming it behind him.

Zuko felt like setting the entire ship on fire. He was anxious, he was exhausted, and he didn't want to be in the middle of the ocean anymore. 

He stopped at the end of the hallway, staring at the wall for a moment, before punching the wall as hard as he could.

_FUCK that hurt._ _Why did I do that?_

He continued to stare at the wall, not even turning when a door behind him had opened. He knew who it was, and it didn't matter anymore.

“Zuko? Are you okay?”

Through gritted teeth, Zuko forced himself to respond. “I’m fine.”

His hand hurt, he pressed it to his chest in hope that somehow that would magically fix it. But it didn't. So he pressed his head against the wall, honor be damned. 

“I don't think you are,” Zuko could hear footsteps as Aang walked towards him. “What happened?”

Zuko whipped around, nearly throwing fire right at the unsuspecting airbender. “Nothing  _ happened!  _ I’m fine! Stop worrying about me!”

Aang flinched, taking a step backwards with his hands up. “Is it the Fire Lord? Did he-”

“My father doesn't know  _ anything- _ ” Zuko cut himself short, not even sure who to direct his anger at anymore. Probably just himself.

“Your dad is the Fire Lord?” It sounded like Aang was whispering, but it also sounded and looked like everything was under water. 

The hallway felt like it was suddenly three times its original length, and Aang was lightyears away from him. Zuko had to prop himself up against a wall with his hand, because the world was spinning. 

_ This is sea sickness. I’m fine. I’m fine. _

Zuko closed his eyes, leaning harder into the wall, trying not to completely pass out. 

_ I’m not fine. _

“Zuko, you should go lie down,” Aang grabbed his arm (when did he get so close to him?) trying to lead him down the hallway. “You’re exhausted.”

He didn't even have the energy to try and protest or push Aang away, instead just half following along and half leading him down to his room in the back of the ship. 

“Have you drank any water today? Firebenders get dehydrated much easier, and you seem dizzy.”

“I don't know.”  _ Why does he know so much about firebenders? _ “I’m fine.”

“I'll get you some water when I get you to lay down.”

_ Such a hero, aren't you? _

Aang opened the door, letting Zuko walk himself to his bed, which he just barely reached before his legs effectively gave out and he laid down face first into his pillow.

Zuko barely heard Aang say “I’m going to get your uncle” before he fell asleep.

In his dreams, everything was hot. Burning hot, like flames mere feet away from your skin. The warmth was comforting, he liked it much better than the pinching cold wind of the South Pole. It reminded him of  _ home _ , a place he so desperately wanted to be. 

Thinking of home made his heart ache. He could never go home now- he was helping the avatar. The exact opposite of what his mission was. 

Zuko could feel fire wrap around him, no longer a nice comforting warmth, but now a complete suffocating heat that threatened to drown him above water. Flames wrapping around him and pulling at his arms, trying to drag him  _ somewhere-  _ somewhere he couldn't see because his vision was blinded in oranges and reds.

So he gave up on fighting- he was never a good fighter anyway, and let himself get dragged down into the darkness below him.

And it was very, very dark.

No bending, no natural light, absolutely nothing to help him see what was in front of him. He could move, not like he had any visual cues to tell him that, but he was bound to run right into a wall doing so.

**“Bring me the Avatar. Bring him to me,** **_alive,_ ** **and your honor will be restored.”**

Zuko could feel tears run down his face, despite the fact it didn't really feel like he was crying. “The Avatar? But the Avatar is-”

**“Did you go half blind** **_and_ ** **half deaf? You're lucky I’m even giving you something to do out there, most people don't receive such a courtesy.”**

It sounded like he was in an echo chamber, and it felt like he was in the smallest room on the planet. It was getting harder and harder to breathe as the words bounced around the room, threatening to cut his skin as they rang before suddenly disappearing from existence, tears still rolling down his face, hitting his arms on the way down, or falling right to the floor.

**“Stop crying and get out of my sight. I don't want to see you again unless you have the Avatar with you. Is that clear?”**

Zuko wanted to scream, he wanted to shout  _ ‘No, no I won't go! You can't send me away! You can't treat me like this!’ _

But as tears magically stopped, and air suddenly came back into the room, there wasn't much he could say that wouldn't get him more hurt than he already was. If he valued his life (and surprisingly, he thinks he does), he wouldn't stand up to fight. 

“Crystal.”

The prince woke up with a start, feeling both blazing hot and freezing cold at the same time. His face felt hot, and he couldn't tell if he had been sweating or crying. Honestly, he didn't want to find out.

His uncle was sitting by his bedside, drinking tea. Not much of an indication of time past, since his uncle would drink tea whenever he  _ felt _ like drinking tea.

He didn't even seem to notice that he had woken up at first, too focused on his tea, before finally noticed that the young prince was staring.

“Ah, you're awake.” Iroh set the cup down, picking up a different cup and handing it to Zuko. “Drink some water.”

Zuko stared at the cup, carefully sitting up before taking it. He first started with a small sip of water, before realizing he was very dehydrated, and drinking the rest of it as fast as he could.

“How are you feeling.”

Zuko didn't want to tell his uncle the truth. That he felt awful, that he wanted to turn around and send the ship to the Fire Nation- Aang’s trust be damned, the kid didn't trust him anyway. But he didn't want to lie either. Besides, the truth felt just as much like a lie as any other answer did

“I don't know.”

“Get some more rest,” Iroh took the cup out of his hands, setting it to the side. “You’re going to need it.”


	5. Book One: Steam | Part Five

When Zuko woke up again, his room was empty. He couldn't even remember if he had imagined Iroh being there or if he actually had been there the last time he had been awake, but it didn't really matter. His head wasn't spinning anymore, and at least he wasn't exhausted, but he didn't want to be in bed any more.

He slowly sat up, pushing himself out of bed and dragging his feet as he headed to the door. He took a deep breath before opening the door and forcing himself to stand up straighter, acting like he has any pride remaining.

He half expected to see the giant bison missing from the top deck, but to the prince’s surprise, both the bison and the avatar were still there. 

Zuko closed the door as quietly as he could, hoping that he wouldn't be noticed at all and he could just get some fresh air without being interrogated on his entire life story. 

He took a deep breath, walking over to the edge of the ship and leaning up against the railing, watching as the ice and snow moved past them. 

_ I might miss this place, _ Zuko looked at some ice floating in the water below, trying to see if he could see any distinct shapes.  _ As much as I hate it, it wasn’t… the worst. _

He lost himself in thought, trying to convince himself that there's going to plenty of ice floating around the North Pole anyway. Not like he  _ really  _ had an emotional attachment to the place. 

But something about being in a place for almost three years, adapting to it surprisingly well, makes Zuko feel almost sad to be finally leaving.

It's probably just a side effect of the seasickness.

Zuko felt something climb up his back, nearly making him jump completely off ship, before noticing it was just the lemur that Aang had picked up from the Southern Air Temple. Zuko hadn't really objected to bringing  _ another _ animal on board, but Aang hadn't really asked, so the legal status of this lemur was questionable

The lemur had jumped off Zuko’s back, sitting on the railing next to him, staring right back at him. 

“Stop staring at me.”

The lemur tilted its head a bit.

“Momo! There you are!” 

Zuko sighed, lamenting the loss of the concept of avoiding Aang, as the avatar ran up to check up on the lemur- the lemur that apparently had a name now.

“You named it?”

“Of course I named him,” Aang scratched the top of Momo’s head. “I’m not just going to point at him and say ‘hey, you!’, that's rude.”

Zuko stared at him for a moment, before deciding it wasn't really worth his time to try and argue and just turning away. 

“So,” Aang also leaned up against the railing, looking down at the ocean below them. “Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine.”

“That's what you said yesterday, and you weren't very fine then.”

“I’m  _ actually  _ fine this time! Stop asking!” Zuko snapped, then after a beat, apologized. “Sorry.”

Aang shrugged it off. “Should I bring up the whole Fire Lord thing, or is it still not a good time?”

Zuko frowned, trying not to show any outward signs of emotion. He probably still very visibly flinched, though. 

He knew it was going to have to come up at some point. He wasn't going to be able to hide it forever, even if he wanted to. But Zuko knew that he could still hide a lot of stuff about his relationship with his father. Especially if it was better that Aang didn't know.

“He’s my father. There's nothing more to it.”

“There has to be more than just that, if you're the Fire Lord’s  _ son _ , why are you out here in the South Pole? Are you here for  _ fun _ ?”

_ I wish _ . Zuko tried taking deep breaths to keep himself from self-destructing. “Training, remember?”

“I remember, I remember,” Aang tapped the top of the railing. “But I don't remember ever hearing about Prince Azulon coming down here for training or anything.”

Now that was a name he hadn’t heard in a while. “Of course he didn't,” Zuko mumbled. “He wasn't a terrible firebender.”

Aang scrunched his face up in thought for a moment, trying to connect the dots together and make some sort of connection. “Oh.  _ Oh. _ ”

“I assume you get it now?”

“I mean, well,” Aang shrunk down a bit, resting his head in his hands. “I still don't get why he’d send you to the South Pole. You’re Fire Nation Royalty, they're all-” Aang stopped talking before he said something he'd probably regret, leaving the sentence unfinished for Zuko to assume the rest.

And it wasn't hard to just figure out what Aang was going to say. “Guess not, if I’m any indication.”

“So your uncle Iroh is…”

“Azulon’s eldest son.” Zuko traces the lines in his palm, trying to focus on his hand instead of on the fact he was threatening to break down yet again. 

Aang was confused again, but Zuko couldn't blame him. “If he’s- but-  _ what? _ ”

“Uncle Iroh’s only son, and only child, my cousin Lu Ten… he died. It crushed my uncle, and my father… he asked Fire Lord Azulon to pass my uncle up in the line of succession,” Zuko wondered why he was telling this to Aang. He quickly tried to find a way to wrap it up without Aang asking any more questions. “My uncle declined the crown when Fire Lord Azulon died, anyway.”

Aang stayed silent, taking in all the information, trying to figure out what to say- if there really was anything he could say. “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Zuko balled his hand up into a fist, digging his nails into his palm. He was not going to cry in front of Aang. “Complicated way to do things, but that's the Fire Nation for you.”

To his surprise, Aang laughed. It caught Zuko off guard, turning to face him for the first time the entire conversation, letting his muscles relax. He didn't even realize he was that tense.

“I guess it's strange for you to not know who’s leading any of the nations now, huh.”

“Yeah, a little. Not like I knew any of them  _ really _ . I was supposed to meet Fire Lord Sozin… but that's never really happened.” 

_ Probably for a good reason.  _ Zuko turned away from Aang again, back to staring at the icy water. “Well, the Fire Lord is my father, Fire Lord Ozai, son of Azulon and Ilah. And the Earth Kingdom is on the… 52nd? Earth King?” 

“Do you know anything about the Water Tribes?” 

Zuko shook his head. “They aren't too fond of Fire Navy ships, so we stayed away from them.”

Aang frowned, looking at Zuko for a moment. “If you're the son of the Fire Lord, you’re probably pretty recognizable, huh?”

“Not sure, I don't really talk to people off this ship very often.”

“Well I’m just thinking about how we're going to get into the Northern Water Tribe to find me a waterbending teacher.”

“I’m not sure where you're going with this.”

“Your hair, Zuko.”

_ Oh. _ Zuko stayed still, but he knew Aang kind of had a point. Besides, if he was going to act like a traitor, he might as well look the part. “I’m sure there's something we can do about it.”

“It’ll take us a bit for us to get to the North Pole,” Aang continued to try and leave hints for Zuko. “And hair always grows back.”

“You want me to cut my hair?”

“It's a suggestion!”

“You realize I’m  _ Fire Nation _ , right? That's not just… something people do!” Zuko made vague gestures towards an iceberg in the distance, as if that would help either situation. “A Fire Nation  _ prince _ !”

“Exactly.  _ I  _ may know you're not going to try and kill everyone, but…” Aang trailed off, hoping he wouldn't have to finish the statement. “You know.”

“How can you be so sure about that.”

“Well, you've been nothing but nice to me since you met me,” Aang shrugged. “I saw what the Fire Nation did to the Southern Air Temple. I’m not an idiot, Zuko.”

“I never said you were an idiot,” Zuko mumbled.

Aang ignored him. “I can tell you're not as bad as you probably think you are. I mean, you're taking me all the way to the North Pole! From the South Pole!”

“I can turn us around if you want.”

“No, no we're fine,” He put his hands up defensively. “All I’m saying is you're not a bad person. But the Northern Water Tribe probably won't just believe that you're not going to try and kill them because from what you've said, the Fire Nation doesn't have the  _ best _ reputation there.”

Zuko  _ knew _ Aang had a point. And he didn't like that. But he was already exiled, whether Aang knew that or not wasn't important, and now he had the avatar and was directly disobeying orders to bring him to the Fire Nation. All things considered, Zuko was a hop skip and a jump away from being labeled a traitor and getting thrown into a volcano- assuming his father was in a good mood, anyway.

So he sighed, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a knife. He took a look at it, reading the inscription he had read hundreds of times already- and apparently so did Aang, over the prince’s shoulder.

“Never give up without a fight.” 

“My uncle gave this to me.” He failed to explain under what circumstances. 

Zuko took a deep breath, holding his hair tight with one hand, gripping the handle of the knife with the other.

He closed his eyes, and in one swift and quick motion, he cut off his hair.

“It’ll grow back.  _ Trust me _ .” Aang pointed at his own head, implying he had experience with the pesky concept of hair growth.

Zuko took a look at the ponytail in his hand, then looking past it at the water below them.

He took another deep breath before dropping it into the ocean. 


	6. Book One: Steam | Part Six

Zuko hated ports. He hated port _towns_. They were awful, they were full of people trying to get away with just about anything, but they were the only solid land that Zuko had come into contact with for a while, so to his chagrin he had to deal. It was either get off the boat and shop, or stay on the boat and not stand on solid ground for who knows how much longer.

The furthest south town in the Earth Kingdom also happened to be a Fire Nation colony. It was one of the oldest colonies, taken very early on in the hundred year war because of its location. Farthest south, meaning it was close to Southern Water Tribe villages, so Fire Navy ships could stop there to refuel and restock without having to go too far into Earth Kingdom waters, risking attack from one of the towns that hadn’t been captured yet. It was an amazing place to be if you were both Fire Nation and a traitor at the same exact time. Because every single citizen hates your guts.

But they needed supplies, and Zuko _personally_ needed a break from the hell that is the ocean, so there they were.

“Are all Fire Nation colonies like this?” Aang looked at a couple walking past them, one in red and one in green, holding hands and talking and laughing. “This doesn’t seem… too bad?”

Zuko frowned, picking up a fruit and looking at it, as if somehow inspecting it was going to change anything about it. He never understood inspecting fruit- it all looked the same to him. “Older Fire Nation colonies are calmer, like this. On the surface everyone is happy, but apparently there’s still large anti-Fire Nation sentiment by those with Earth Kingdom ancestry, so they need to be kept in check.” 

“Kept in check? By who?”

“The mayor is Fire Nation.” Was all that Zuko said, putting the fruit he had been pretending to look at in his basket before handing the shopkeeper (a man in green, Earth Kingdom) some money.

Aang silently thanked the man for the fruits, before realizing Zuko had already left, heading deeper into the market. He picked up the pace, running to catch up to him. “What’s the rush, your h-”

Zuko was quick to interrupt him, covering Aang’s face with his hand. “Shush! Don’t call me that.” 

Aang moved his hand out of the way “Why not? It seems weird to just call you ‘Zuko’ or whatever if you’re… you know”

“Get used to it, you can’t go around calling me ‘your highness’ in places like this.” Zuko hoped that he was vague enough that Aang wouldn’t feel the need to press any further, but also gave enough information that he didn’t feel like he was missing anything. “Besides. You don't need to call me that anyway.”

“If you say so…” Aang frowned, continuing to follow Zuko around the market. 

The trip was supposed to be largely uneventful. Buy food, buy supplies, get out of the town as fast as they possibly could. 

And they almost made it out, before someone stopped them on their way out.

“Excuse me,” A young man, wearing green to designate he had Earth Kingdom blood, had stepped in front of them to get their attention. “Are you the Avatar?”

Aang looked over to Zuko, as if he could provide any guidance to the situation, before nodding ever so slightly. “Yup. That’s me.”

The man’s face lit up “Oh, thank goodness you’ve finally returned! We need your help, it’s so wonderful that you came here”

“My help?” Aang seemed skeptical at best and downright untrusting at worst, and Zuko wasn’t exactly sure which one was better. It _was_ a Fire Nation occupied town, whether the person asking for help was Earth Kingdom or not didn’t really seem to do him any favors. “What do you need my help with?”

“A spirit.” The man said flatly. 

“A spirit? If you’re having problems with a spirit, the town did that to itself.” Zuko started to walk away, before getting stopped by the man holding his arms out. 

“Hey! We didn’t do anything! This town didn’t _ask_ to be attacked by a spirit!”

Aang put his hands up between them, trying to deescalate the situation before it even considered escalating itself. “Woah, woah, hold on. A spirit? What kind of spirit?”

“Chōchinbi,” The young man backed away from Zuko, turning to talk only to Aang. “A fiery… _thing_ that has been going down roads and lighting homes on fire.” 

“Chōchinbi?” Zuko raised an eyebrow “That’s not a spirit.”

“What do you mean it’s not a spirit, I’ve seen it! With my own eyes!” The man pointed at his face. “It’s not the work of the Fire Nation, I can tell you that.”

“Chōchinbi isn’t a spirit, in the Fire Nation-” Zuko stopped, quickly rewriting his story before trying again. “In the Fire Nation, they have a legend that Inari sends Chōchinbi to homes that need to be… cleansed.”

“Cleansed? Cleansed _how?_ Why would a house need to be cleansed?”

Zuko shrugged. “It’s just a legend I’ve heard while traveling, it might just be some tall tale.”

Aang wanted more information. “So, it’s the work of a spirit?”

“More like a pet,” Zuko clarified. “A weird pet, but a pet nonetheless.” 

“So we need to find Inari and ask them why they’re sending the Chōchinbi to the town?” Aang said it like a question, when he meant it as more of a statement. Which wasn’t good when Zuko already had tried to leave once during this conversation.

“We don’t _need_ to. Again, if the town is having spirit problems, that’s not _my_ problem.”

“But it is _my_ problem! Gyatso once told me that the avatar is the bridge between the spirit world and our world, so I _need_ to help these people! If I can find out why Inari is so mad, then I can bring peace to the town!” 

Zuko glared at Aang, and he did not look like he was going to be changing his mind any time soon. The exiled prince wasn’t too fond of the thought of sticking around here for any longer than he needed to. Not only was it a Fire Nation colony, but it was a Fire Nation colony that was being attacked by a fire spirit? The world hated him. 

But eventually he sighed, caving in to the fact that nothing Zuko could do or say would get Aang to reconsider. “Fine, fine let’s stay.”

The pair had gone back on to the ship for the briefest of moments, mostly to explain the situation to the crew (though Aang did most of the explaining, Zuko hung back and avoided eye contact with everyone), before stepping foot back on dry land to sit around and wait for the Chōchinbi to come back, so Aang could follow it back to Inari. 

Aang had set up camp in the center of town, right in front of a fountain. Zuko _had_ been offered a room at a local inn, which he initially accepted and attempted to sleep in before realizing he was not going to sleep very well, promptly getting up again and sneaking out and back to the town square to sit and wait with Aang.

And it wasn’t too bad. The two sat in silence, waiting for the Chōchinbi to arrive, but after a while it felt like they were waiting for absolutely nothing. 

“I _thought_ it was weird that he said a Chōchinbi was here,” Zuko stood up, just about ready to leave. “Why would a Chōchinbi be here?”

Aang didn’t say anything, still focusing on the road ahead of them. 

“It’s a fire spirit, one of the dozens of stories told by parents trying to teach fear to their child. Why would it be anywhere near the Earth Kingdom, Fire Nation colony or not.” He bit the inside of his cheek “This is pointless, and a waste of our time. Let’s go.”

“No! I said I was going to help them, I can’t just leave!”

“There’s nothing you can do, there’s no Chōchinbi, so there’s no spirit! Inari isn't here!” Zuko gestured around them “We’re sitting out here in the middle of the night waiting for absolutely nothing! It’s probably some firebending kid playing a twisted prank”

As if like magic, a flash of light appeared down the road, and a small ball of fire floated towards them. Zuko squinted, trying to figure out if it was a figment of his imagination, but it wasn’t. 

“Then what’s _that,_ huh Zuko? Doesn't look like a firebender to me” Aang stood up, beginning to head towards it. “C’mon, we gotta see if it’ll lead us to Inari!”

Zuko grumbled, reluctantly following Aang, and not entirely happy that he was wrong. Who would be, really, especially when you now had to deal with _spirits_ . Not a topic Zuko was incredibly fond of- growing up in a nation where spirits are a scare tactic taught to misbehaving children. Spirits only come when something bad has happened. That's what they did in the _Fire Nation_ , anyway, and this place was practically Fire Nation. Right?

Upon being approached, the Chōchinbi quickly disappeared, fading off into the darkness of the night.

“Oh, great,” Aang crossed his arms. “It's shy.”

Zuko looked around them, making sure there was no one around before carefully lighting a small flame, barely enough to even count as something worth anything, holding it in his hands. 

“We’re friends, see? I have fire too. We want to help.”

Inari seemed reluctant, because the Chōchinbi didn't reappear right away. It was only after a small amount of reflection over the situation that the Chōchinbi appeared again, quickly leading them out of the town.

Zuko kept the flame lit but hidden, hoping that it was worth _something_ to Inari, holding his hands close to his chest while following the Chōchinbi, Aang closely behind.

“How did you know that would work?” Aang whispered ahead, not even sure if Zuko had heard him.

Zuko shrugged “I didn't.”

The Chōchinbi reached the opposite edge of the town from where the pair had landed, this side was facing a vast forest (not a rare sight in the Earth Kingdom, but a rare sight so close to a Fire Nation colony. It's age probably helped), and stopped for a moment, as if awaiting instruction.

While they stood still, Zuko took the time to take a look around. There was barely any light that wasn't from either the Chōchinbi or from Zuko’s small excuse for firebending, so he couldn't see very much other than trees, but the moon shone down onto the forest and made the treetops glow with a light that the sun just couldn't provide. The sun provided warmth and life, but the moon sure did have a lot to offer in aesthetic and ambiance. 

Just thinking about the moon made Zuko want to yawn. Why had he decided to do this when it was in the dead of night?

The Chōchinbi started moving again, faster this time, heading deep into the forest. Aang had run forward to make sure that they didn't lose sight of the spirit, and Zuko followed closely behind, making sure he didn't lose focus on his inner fire, and therefore the outer fire he was producing to provide both light for Aang and himself, and reassurance to Inari that he was to be trusted. 

After they were significantly into the forest, the Chōchinbi had stopped, leaving them at the start of a clearing.

“Huh? Why is there such a large clearing in a forest as dense as this?” Aang looked around, mostly at the ground for any clues of any trees being cut down.

Zuko held fire up at some trees right before the start of the clearing for some light, and he had barely been able to pick out burnt bark and scorch marks before a large gust of wind had hit him, causing him to lose focus and forget the fire entirely, letting it go out.

“Someone burnt these trees, and someone else doesn't want it to happen again,” Zuko turned to the Chōchinbi, or at least where it was supposed to be, as it had disappeared while they were investigating. 

“Inari,” Aang stared off into the forest, looking at something that Zuko couldn't see. “Hold on.”

Aang sat down cross legged in a meditation position, and took deep, concentrated breaths. Zuko watched him for a moment before deciding he was going to try and find the person who had started these fires in the first place.

On a second pass looking around the clearing, things became a bit more obvious. It wasn't just someone had brought a torch from in town, or started a campfire that got out of control. Those fires wouldn't have stopped. This fire was controlled, the work of a firebender. It was obvious to anyone who had seen the damage firebenders could do, which was pretty much everybody. 

He began to poke his head around trees to see if it was someone who had set up camp, or if they'd have to wait in the clearing for the arsonistic bender to come back. He had already started grumbling about how he was never going to get any good sleep when he noticed the kid laying against the tree. 

She was dressed like an Earth Kingdom girl and looked like an Earth Kingdom girl, and honestly, Zuko had a brief thought of ‘this can't be the right person’. He stared at her for a moment. Until he noticed the faint rise and fall of her chest that at least implied some breathing, Zuko had thought she might have been dead. He sat down next to the girl, slightly shaking her awake.

The girl slowly opened her eyes until Zuko came into focus, when she jumped out of her skin and up into the air, landing on her feet and holding her hands up in the air. “I didn't do it on purpose! Please don't hurt me! I don't want to hurt anyone!”

Zuko stayed where she was on the floor, patting the ground next to him for the girl to sit back down. “What's your name?”

She was reluctant, but obliged, slowly lowering her hands before sitting down. “Huang.”

“What are you doing sleeping in the forest?”

“Protecting my family,” Huang kept her eyes on her hand, which she held tightly together in a ball in her lap. “I’m dangerous.”

“You’re a firebender,” Zuko leaned up against the tree. “There's a difference.”

“There's no difference between dangerous and-” She cut herself off, looking up at him “How did you know?”

“The scorch marks on the trees, the controlled way the clearing was made. Fire can be wild, and dangerous, but only if it's in the wrong hands,” Zuko paused for a moment, as if contemplating if he should show her. After a minute, he realized she probably wouldn't trust him either way, but at least it could show that he was someone worth listening to. So he held his hand out, took a deep breath, and lit a small fire right above his palm. Nothing incredibly impressive. 

The fire danced around in the air, half of it being the natural way that fire moved, the other half being Zuko manipulating it into dancing like a human would. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Huang’s face illuminated by the flame, completely fascinated by it.

“Do your parents know?”

“No,” Huang frowned “When I found out, I ran away into the forest. My first night here I burnt down those trees… I didn't mean to! I didn't want to, I just- I don't know what I’m doing…”

“That's because you don't have any formal training,” The fire continued to dance, spinning and twisting around itself “To get formal training you need to tell your parents that you’re a firebender.”

“I can’t tell them that, they’ll… they won’t love me anymore. I’ll just be some _burden_ that they have to do something with!” Huang turned away, slumping down. “And even if they did want to help, what are they supposed to do? I’m an Earth Kingdom born Fire Bender. I don’t belong anywhere!”

“One of your parents has Fire Nation ancestry. Maybe you don’t know it, but they probably do. That’s where the firebending comes from. They aren’t going to stop loving you, and you’re… not a burden. For being who you are.”

Huang didn’t respond, and Zuko wasn’t entirely sure what he said wrong, or what to say next. Before Zuko could figure it out, he heard sniffling, and then he felt Huang hug him.

“Thank you,” 

Zuko quickly put the fire out, just so he didn’t burn her, but didn’t really return the hug until a couple seconds later. He wasn’t really used to affection, let along affection from strangers, but she definitely needed the hug.

“Me and my friend will walk you back home whenever you’re ready, okay?”

Huang nodded, pulling away from the hug and wiping tears from her eyes. “Okay.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took slightly longer than normal to write because I wanted to make sure I got this one and the next few chapters down perfectly, so thank you very much for your patience! These next upcoming chapters are all going to be the replacement for The Winter Solstice, so we're starting to actually get somewhere now that Zuko has gone through some minor hell.


	7. Book One: Steam | Air Interlude I

Aang always enjoyed meditation. It was a good way to reflect on the day. But meditation to try to connect to a spirit felt way different than meditation to reflect, it was almost like an out of body experience. 

He assumed he was in the spirit world, and he was wandering around looking for Inari. He didn’t really have much to go by in terms of looks, but he had a feeling he would know it was her when he saw her.

After some walking, he had a weird feeling that was telling him he needed to look up. So he did. He looked up, into one of the trees, and on one of the branches sat a nine tailed fox, carefully perched and looking down at him.

“Are you Inari?”

“It depends, who is asking?”

Aang bowed to the spirit “I’m Aang, I'm the Avatar.” 

“Avatar Aang,” the fox jumped from the tree, landing in front of him. “You came to ask me to stop sending my Chōchinbi to the town, didn’t you?”

“No.” Aang sat down in front of Inari so they were at the same eye level. “Well, sort of. I came to ask  _ why  _ you were sending the Chōchinbi to the town.”

Inari’s tails swayed and flickered, changing with the wind and almost looking like fire themselves. “A member of the village had come into the forest and started to destroy it. It’s only fair I destroy their home a bit in return, no?”

“Huh? You mean, the burnt trees in the clearing? Someone from the village did that?”

“And she won't leave the forest, sadly. I have no way to remove her without doing more damage. Maybe you could help me, Avatar,” Inari stood up, walking circles around Aang. “Get the girl out of the forest, and I will stop sending my Chōchinbi into town.”

“Perfect!” Aang jumped to his feet “That way everyone is happy!”

“Good luck, Avatar,” Inari jumped back into her tree “Leaving the spirit world isn’t as easy as getting in.”

Aang took a moment to fully process what Inari had just said, but by the time he had, she had already left. Leaving him to figure that out on his own.

He started by retracing his steps, but that led him basically nowhere. All trees looked the exact same, and he couldn’t for the life of him find wherever he had appeared. 

“I should have taken notes,” He climbed over a fallen tree trunk, which was something he definitely didn’t do on the way in. “Or left a trail of breadcrumbs.” 

After what felt like hours of just walking in circles through the forest, Aang sat down under a tree to catch his breath and rest a bit. 

_ Maybe if I just sit here and close my eyes, I’ll wake back up in the regular world,  _ He closed his eyes, taking deep breaths and focusing on returning to the clearing. He counted to thirty before opening his eyes, disappointed when he was in the same place. 

He leaned up against the tree and crossed his arms, trying to think of a way out. He could glide up into the tree tops to try and see above them and try and spot the clearing, but the trees were too thick, and he wasn’t even sure how far away from the clearing he was- or, really, how big the forest was to begin with. He lost his sense of time while in the spirit world. 

When he went to try anyway, however, he couldn’t even get off the ground with his glider. Upon a second try, and a second fail, he realized that there was no bending in the spirit world.

“Well, great” He sat back down in front of the tree, leaning back against it to try and think of another option. And while he was thinking of ways to get out of there, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

When Aang opened his eyes from his concentration nap, he was met by the face of a dragon.

It nearly caused him to jump out of his skin, but the dragon seemed to pose no real threat to him, so he slowly reached out and put his hand on it’s head. As soon as his hand made contact with the dragon's head, Aang got a vision of Avatar Roku, one of the past Avatars, riding on the dragon's back.

“You’re Fang, aren’t you?” Aang retracted his hand, standing up “Avatar Roku’s animal guide.”

The dragon, Fang, nodded. 

“I need help, I don’t know how to get out of here,” Aang gestured around “That village needs my help, but I need yours.”

Fang dropped down, low enough that Aang could get on his back. He took the hint, doing just that before Fang stood up straight and flew up, out of the forest, and off towards somewhere in the distance.

“Hey, wait,” Aang looked behind them as the forest got smaller “Where are you taking me?”

Fang grunted and just kept flying, and Aang had no real choice but to just go wherever he was being taken.

After a journey that either took ten minutes or two hours (Aang was still trying to figure out that sense of time), they arrived at an island. Aang recognized the architecture of the temple they were in front of as Fire Nation, but other than that he had no idea where he was. He expected them to land, but instead Fang flew them right into the side of the temple, landing them inside, in a room with a statue of Avatar Roku.

Aang jumped off the back of the dragon, looking up at the statue. “I don’t understand, this is just a statue of Roku.”

He turned back to Fang, who placed the end of his whisker in the center of the avatar’s forehead, which gave him another vision. This time, it was a short vision of a comet. 

“Does Avatar Roku want to talk to me about a comet?” He turned back to the statue “I don’t think I can talk to him like this, though.”

Fang moved his head slightly, revealing a light that was aimed just to the right of the statue of Roku, before giving Aang another vision. This time Aang saw the sun rising and setting, before seeing the light slowly moving towards the statue before finally hitting him.

“It’s a calendar,” Aang looked at the floor, then back up at the statue. “That light will hit Roku on the solstice.”

Fang nodded.

“I need to get back to the forest, I need to tell this to Zuko!” Aang approached Fang, who had knelt down so he could climb on his back again. “He’ll know how to get here.”   
  


The dragon flew Aang back towards the forest, leaving Aang to think about the visions that he had been given. A comet? Why does Roku want to talk to him about a comet of all things? He didn’t understand, but he knew everything would make sense once they got back to the temple on the solstice. 

Once they reached the forest again, Fang flew them down into it. Aang saw the clearing on the way in, and was expecting Fang to just let him off, but instead Fang kept flying as fast as he could, running him right back into his body, causing him to wake up with a start, as if he had simply just been asleep the whole time.


	8. Book One: Steam | Part Seven

Zuko brought Huang to the clearing, where Aang was meditating.

“This is Aang,” Zuko sat down a bit away from Aang. It was probably better to just wait for him to be done with his spirit world stuff instead of leaving him unguarded in the middle of a forest with a spirit problem. “He’s the Avatar.”

“The Avatar, huh?” Huang sat next to Zuko “Can you show me how to control fire as well as you? I might as well at least learn how to do that, right?”

“It takes a lot of practice,” He could feel himself shrink down, as slumping could hide him in the middle of an open clearing. He had no faith in himself as a teacher. “But I can show you a couple things you can use to practice on your own.”

Huang’s face lit up, and she straightened her posture, giving Zuko her complete attention. 

Zuko sat up straight, closing his eyes and taking deep, controlled breaths. “Firebenders are unique, we get our element from within. You need to be able to stay calm under pressure. If you don't, your fire will become out of control, and…” He couldn't think of a nice way to put ‘you’ll hurt people you care about and burn down everything’, so he didn't say anything. “So we do breathing exercises. It helps a lot more than you think it might.”

Huang nodded, closing her eyes as well and taking deep breaths. 

“You’re a powerful firebender, for someone with no training,” The poor forest had certainly seen that. “But you can't just go around and start lighting things on fire, as gifted as you are…” He trailed off, losing his train of thought, losing his focus. A voice nagged at him in the back of his head.

_ Azula was born lucky. You were lucky to be born. _

Huang yelped, jumping up to her feet, and Zuko opened his eyes to the fire that had started in front of him. He sighed, taking his hand and calmly pressing the fire out.

“Sorry. I got distracted.”

“That was cool…” Huang sat back down, a little further from Zuko this time. “You can put fires out, too?”

“Small ones, the bigger ones are a little harder.” Zuko looked around, grabbing the closest leaf he could that was just sitting on the ground, handing it to Huang. “Try starting a fire. Just concentrate on the leaf, deep breaths.”

Huang held the leaf in front of her, staring at it. “Just… light it on fire?”

“It's easier than it sounds.” Zuko grabbed a leaf for himself as well, holding it by the edges, and taking a couple deep breaths and focusing on the leaf, and himself. A small fire started in the center of the leaf, slowly spreading to the edges before stopping right before it burnt it completely. He pressed the leaf between his palms, stamping out the fire, before holding it up for Huang to see. “Just like that. Don't worry if you burn it completely, or if you don't get it that far. Just focus on starting the fire.”

Huang nodded and took a deep breath, but before she could exhale she got scared again.

“Zuko!” Aang shouted, jumping to his feet before noticing that Zuko was sitting a couple feet away. “Oh, there you are.”

Zuko tried not to show any sign that he had been spooked. “Did you talk to Inari?”

“I did! She said that she’d stop sending the Chōchinbi into town if some girl out of this forest-” Aang looked at Huang, whose head was hung low. “I’m guessing that’s the girl Inari was talking about.”

“Yup,” Zuko stood up. “Glad it’s as simple as that.”

“I upset Inari, didn’t I.” Huang reluctantly dragged herself to her feet, still holding the leaf Zuko had given her. 

“A little, but as long as you agree to stay out of the forest, she wont send her Chōchinbi into town anymore! And everyone is happy!” 

“But I’m not happy!” Huang looked up at Aang, and she looked like she was about to cry. “What happens when my parents find out I’m a firebender  _ and _ I angered a spirit who almost burned down the town!”

Aang took a step back “I- uh, well they don’t have to know you’re the one who angered Inari. What they don’t know can't hurt them, I’m sure they’ll just be more excited that you’re safe.”

“Let’s get you home,” Zuko began walking out of the forest, making sure Aang and Huang were following him. 

Zuko and Aang took Huang home to a couple of worried parents, very happy that their little girl was home. Zuko had decided that it was Huang’s decision if she wanted to bring up the firebending thing to them, so he didn’t say anything, instead just making sure she was going to be okay before leaving- not before getting some weird looks from Huang’s father, and being offered food by her mother. Aang seemed like he was in a rush anyway, incredibly antsy when Zuko had stopped to talk to Huang’s father, who kept starting to say something but always trailing off and changing his mind on what he was going to say.

The pair finally returned to the ship, and for once Zuko was incredibly happy to be back at sea. Spirits were a headache, but that’s what he got for deciding to side with the Avatar- if only temporarily. 

Aang immediately went down below deck and into his room, and Zuko didn’t really think anything of it. But after a while, he started to wonder what exactly he was doing, and went to go check up on him.

He knocked on the door and was greeted with a muffled “Come in”, so Zuko opened the door.

It was the first time he really had looked at the room they had given to Aang, and honestly he was a little surprised. It barely looked like it belonged on a Fire Navy ship anymore. It reminded him of the Air Temples, but slightly more lively. Which was a weird way to think of it, but what could he do. 

“Are you okay? What happened in the Spirit World?” 

Aang didn’t look at Zuko “I have to go talk to Avatar Roku, at the Avatar Temple in the Fire Nation.”

“Why didn’t you tell me that? We have to adjust course for the Fire Nation,” Zuko’s mind was racing. If they were headed right for the Fire Nation, and Aang knew about it, nothing was stopping him from just going to the capital instead. Nothing was stopping him from locking Aang in his room and taking him to the Fire Lord-

“No, I have to go alone,” Aang hugged his knees to his chest “It’s dangerous, if anyone knows you’re helping me…” A brief pause, silence hanging in the air “The Fire Nation doesn’t like me very much, does it?”

“Not particularly” No reason to lie. “But it’s more dangerous if you go without me, you haven't been there in over 100 years.”

“I’ll just go on Appa, then I can come back. Or I can go to the North Pole by myself,” 

“We’ll take you to the Fire Nation. We know exactly how to get to the Fire Temple. You don’t have to do this alone, Aang.”

Aang didn’t protest, and Zuko decided that was his cue to go let the helmsman know that he should change course for the Fire Nation.

The whole thing was making Zuko weirdly anxious, and apparently Iroh could tell.

“What is troubling you, Nephew?” 

“This is going to be the first time I’m back in the Fire Nation in three years.” Zuko frowned, looking up at the sun, as if the sun had all the answers to the universe- if only. “And I have the Avatar.”

“You’re thinking about turning him in, aren’t you.”

“Of course I am!”

“But you’re not going to.”

“How do you know that?”

Iroh put his hand on Zuko’s shoulder. “Because I know you, Prince Zuko. You wouldn’t betray someone’s trust like this. Maybe a year ago, but not now.”

Zuko pushed his arm away. “I haven’t made up my mind. But we’re going to the Fire Nation no matter what.” 

Seemingly, the whole detour was going to be smooth sailing. Fire Nation waters were usually calm, to an extent. But to Zuko’s great unpleasant surprise, soon what looked like a Fire Navy blockade appeared on the horizon.

“This puts a wrench in some plans,” Zuko crossed his arms, looking at the fleet of ships off in the distance. “How are we supposed to get past that?”

“It’s not too late to turn back, Zuko. If you’re in Earth Kingdom waters, they cannot arrest you.”

Zuko glared back at his uncle. “That’s the one thing we  _ aren’t _ doing.”

After some not so careful deliberation, Zuko had the ship stall for a bit while he went to go talk to Aang, mostly just to let him know of the current situation. This time, he didn’t knock before entering.

“So there’s a blockade.”

“A blockade?” Aang sat up, rubbing sleep from his eyes- was he taking a nap? “A Fire Navy blockade?”

“Yeah.” Zuko leaned against the doorframe. “They’re not just going to let any Joe Schmoe past.”

“But you’re not Joe Snow or whatever, you’re the fire prince, they have to let you past!”

Zuko frowned, averting his eyes to the ground. “Not exactly.”

“But if you were just in the South Pole for training, why wouldn’t they let you back-”

“It doesn’t  _ MATTER _ why they won’t let me through!” Zuko hit the wall, nearly making the entire ship shake with his anger alone. “What matters is that they won't, and we need to find a solution to get you past it.”

Aang crossed his arms and closed his eyes, concentrating on his thoughts. “Well, we do have Appa.”

“They’ll see a giant bison take off from the deck of the ship. They’re Fire Nation, not stupid.” 

“Well, he doesn’t need to take off from the ship. He can get in the water, and swim for a bit before taking off from there.”

“I guess, but then that just leaves us out here.”

“I’ll come back when I’m done talking to Roku. You’ve helped me a lot so far, I just need you to make sure they don’t shoot me out of the sky.”

Zuko frowned, but he wasn’t going to argue. Instead, he formulated his own plan, his own interpretation of Aang’s words, that allowed him to follow the avatar into the Fire Nation- and it helped that he still had information that Aang didn’t. 

The crew had helped Aang and Appa carefully down the side of the ship, so that there wouldn’t be a big splash that alerted the blockade that anything was out of the ordinary. Then they watched as Appa swam a ways away from the ship, before turning around and taking off into the sky, heading right towards the blockade.

“So, are we just going to sit here and watch him get killed?” One of the crewmembers asked, looking up at Aang and Appa. 

“No, we’re going to follow him.” 

“What do you mean we’re going to follow him?”

“Don’t you remember my mission? Find the Avatar.” Zuko gestured up at the sky up at Appa “Well, we found him. Now we have to chase him. Full steam ahead.”   
  


“Zuko can I just say that in your sixteen years of being prince, this is the craziest decision you have ever made?”

“Doesn’t matter how crazy it is, it just has to work.”

Zuko kept a close eye on the Fire Navy blockade and on Aang and Appa. If he had to wager a guess, they weren’t shooting at the avatar because of the possibility of them hitting Zuko’s ship- which wasn’t a very Fire Nation move. Unless they knew exactly  _ who  _ was on the ship.

When they reached the blockade, one of the ships pulled up next to theirs, and someone came across to Zuko’s ship to speak to him.

“Commander Zhao,” Zuko bowed slightly. 

“Prince Zuko,” Zhao bowed back, but it was obviously not out of respect, but simply out of courtesy. “Back so soon?”

“I wouldn’t be back just yet if the Avatar hadn’t flown into the Fire Nation. You remember my orders, don’t you?”

“Of course, of course,” Zhao inspected the rest of the crew, trying to find any cracks in their foundation. But nothing. “Why don’t we assist you. I’m sure you could use the help.”

“Uh, that won’t be necessary.” Zuko tried not to break, or show any real sign of terror. 

Unfortunately, Zhao doubled down anyway. “Nonsense, the Avatar is strong, and you’re going to need an escort back to the capital once you’ve captured him. Besides, we don’t have much time to debate. We wouldn’t want to lose sight of him, would we?”

“No. We wouldn’t.”

“So now what?” Iroh looked back at the Fire Navy ship following them as they followed Aang. “You can either betray Aang, or you can betray the Fire Nation.”

“I’m not betraying the Fire Nation.” 

“So, you’re going to take Aang to the Fire Lord?”

“I’m not doing that either! I mean-” Zuko could feel a headache coming on. “Stop asking me so many questions!” 

“I’m just trying to make sure you’ve thought this whole plan through,” Iroh waited for Zuko’s response, which never came. So he sighed, walking away.

What  _ was _ his plan? He didn’t really have one, as much as he kept saying he did. He was lying. And that didn’t sit well with him. But it was for their own good, really. And he  _ needed _ to follow Aang- it just helped that the rest of the Fire Nation already knew that. 

So by the time they had pulled up to the Fire Temple, Zuko still hadn’t thought up a proper plan, and they were marching in, ready to catch Aang and turn him in to Fire Lord Ozai.

Zuko just felt uncomfortable as he walked with Zhao’s forces through the temple. The Fire Sages were nowhere to be found, but apparently Zhao knew where he was going anyway, so they just followed him through the complete maze. 

He felt his stomach roll as they reached the final room, where they was a door to the room with a statue of Avatar Roku- presumably where Aang was bound to be headed if he was going to be here. But he kept a level head. Deep breaths. 

“Where is the Avatar?” Zhao asked one of the Fire Sages- he wasn’t sure which one. “We know he’s here.”

“He’s in the sanctuary already” the Fire Sage gestured to the large doors. “You’re too late.”

“Nonsense! We can just open the doors and get him out!” Zhao gestured to his crew, silently ordering them to open the door with fire blasts. 

Zuko stood back, he could feel his head spin as he watched them open the door- but no one was inside. Other than Momo, the sanctuary was completely empty.

He did feel the blast of air behind him, knocking Zhao’s forces down as Aang ran past them, and the sanctuary doors closed behind him.

And Zuko couldn’t help but laugh.

“What’s so  _ funny? _ ” Zhao picked himself up, stomping over to Zuko and pointing his fist at his face. 

“You just got tricked by a twelve year old!” 

“What! No we didn’t, he’s the  _ avatar!  _ Zhao paused, thinking about what Zuko had said. “How do you know he’s twelve?”

“I’ve been chasing him for weeks, of course I know he’s  _ twelve.  _ He doesn’t look one hundred!” Zuko kept trying to buy them time, hoping they wouldn’t try to open the door again before Aang was done talking to Roku. “So, it’s pretty funny. Avatar or not. You got tricked by a twelve year old.”

Zhao looked like he was on the brink of throwing someone off of a ship- if only they were on a ship, instead of a temple. Instead, he shot a fire blast off to the side at a poor unsuspecting statue. 

Before he could recollect his troops and try to open the door again, light began to pour out from the sanctuary. Zhao ordered his troops to stand and fight, but when the door got knocked open and Avatar Roku stepped out of the sanctuary, apparently he changed his mind, as he started backing up.

Zuko stood his ground, even as Roku began to split the temple in half.

The Fire Sage they had encountered earlier (Zuko still couldn’t recall his name, if he even knew it in the first place), ran over to him “Prince Zuko, you must leave- Avatar Roku is going to destroy the temple.”

“I’m not leaving without Aang” Zuko ignored the Fire Sage, and instead of running away from Roku, he walked towards him. Before he could make much progress, Roku disappeared, leaving behind a very exhausted Aang. 

Zuko ran towards him, quickly helping him up. “Hey, I’ve got you,”

“Zuko? Why are you here?” Aang recollected himself, trying to find a way to escape. “Actually, it doesn’t matter, let’s get out of here.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Zuko looked at the rising lava, and decided that today was actually not going to be the day he died. Sorry Roku. 

Aang grabbed his wrist, running with him towards a hole in the wall “You’re going to have to jump!”

“Are you  _ crazy?” _ Zuko didn’t stop running, and maybe it was because burning to death seemed like a worse death than falling to his death, but honestly he wasn’t really thinking in the moment in general. 

“Appa will catch us! Hold on!” 

Zuko wasn’t sure if he trusted Aang 100% or not, but he wasn’t really going to argue when he was this close to dying in more than one way. So he closed his eyes, and jumped.

And was pleasantly surprised when Appa did catch them. 

“That was a little too close.” Zuko looked back at the temple. “I’m guessing you and Roku had a nice chat.”

“Yeah, yeah kinda.” Aang looked up at Momo, who had landed on his head. “Why were you there? I thought you were going to wait for me on the other side of the blockade?”

“Well, I had other plans. I thought you were going to need some help.”

“Aww, Zuko wants to help, did you hear that Appa?” Appa growled, very much acknowledging that he did hear that. “So is your ship here too, then?”

“Yeah. We should probably make sure Zhao didn’t get to that, too.”

Aang steered Appa back towards the ground, over to where Zuko’s Fire Navy ship was docked. When they landed on the deck, Zhao and his forces were nowhere to be found, which made Zuko both relieved and terrified. 

The helmsman approached him “Where are we headed, Prince Zuko?”

Zuko looked over at Aang, who was gratefully petting Appa, and thanking him for saving them back there. “Put us back on course for the North Pole.”

The helmsman nodded, and Zuko could swear he saw his uncle give him a thumbs up, but it was so brief that he wasn’t entirely sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually doodled Huang, for anyone that would like a visual for her: https://navochao.tumblr.com/post/620842740928921601/i-doodled-huang-from-my-fic-quinta-essentia  
> And I'd also like to thank ShadowSpellchecker for giving me the idea of Aang decorating his room on the Fire Navy ship.


	9. Book One: Steam | Water Interlude I

Katara had been trying all day to bend the water inside of the snow, trying to use it to build a snowman, or at least try and move it. Aside from making a couple of snowballs, however, she was having some pretty bad luck. Not that bending had anything to do with luck, but Katara didn’t exactly have any good luck when it came to her bending. 

She finally gave up, standing up and wiping all of the snow off of her dress before going to find Sokka, who said he was going to go fishing. She wanted to go too, because she had heard stories of waterbenders being able to catch fish with their bending, so she was going to convince Sokka to bring her along. Not that he’d be too fond of her coming along to work on her bending, because he always got the short end of the stick when she dropped any water.

She laughed at the image of Sokka getting soaked again, as frustrating as it was that she couldn’t hold her bending for a long time, it always seemed to have a hilarious outcome.

“Katara!” Sokka ran up to her, waving his boomerang in the air like he was trying to flag down a boat “You’ll never guess what I just saw!”

“Um, let's see, a dolphin-fish?” 

“No, a Fire Navy ship!”

Katara gawked “What? Why do you sound so happy about it?”

“Okay, well, it sounds bad but I promise it’s good,” Sokka grabbed her arm, walking her towards the edge of the village, where they could see off into the arctic sea “You know that Fire Navy ship that’s been here for the past three years, just kind of floating around?”

“Ugh, don’t remind me.” For the past three years their village had been on edge, just waiting for that Fire Navy ship to come closer, but it never did. It just wandered the sea. “What about it?”

“It’s gone.” Her brother pointed towards something “I just watched it leave, in the direction of the Fire Nation. I think it left.”

“After three years of just… nothing? It’s leaving?” Katara was skeptical, and while there were times where they couldn’t see the ship, it usually came back within a couple of days. “I wonder if it was just there for surveillance.”

“I’m surprised it didn’t leave earlier, seeing as how boring it is around here lately” Sokka put his hands behind his head, looking off into the distance as if he was trying to spot the Fire Navy ship. “We should let everyone else know.”

Katara nodded, but continued to look off at the horizon. “What if it comes back? What if it comes back with more ships?”

“They've got to have a way to talk to each other without going all the way back to the Fire Nation,” Sokka put a hand on her shoulder, trying to reassure her. “Come fishing with me, it's safe out there now, so…”

“We could make it a competition,” Katara side eyed her brother. “Person who catches the least fish has to unload them?”

“You're on.”

Unfortunately for the spirit of competition, the siblings had terrible luck with the fish. Katara had completely given up, instead trying to practice her waterbending to minimal results, and while Sokka was still trying to catch fish, he was getting more and more frustrated as the day dragged on.

“How many fish did we even catch?” Katara lifted a bit of water out of the ocean, streaming it around in a circle. “Two?”

“Yeah, two.” Sokka rested his head in his hand, glaring at the ocean, as if it was taunting them. “I think this fishing trip is officially a bust.”

“You could say that again,” Katara kept bending the water, trying her best to hold on to it before completely losing control, dropping it right on top of Sokka.

“Hey! Watch where you're bending!”

“Sorry!” Katara tried bending some of the water off of him, but to no avail. “Sorry, sorry, I’m sorry- sorry.”

“If you had a waterbending teacher you'd be able to do a lot more than just splash around.” He made a big grand gesture with his hands. “But being the only waterbender in the South Pole has its downsides.”

“Yeah…” Katara leaned off the side of the canoe, looking down into the cold waters below them, before jumping back up “Sokka, you're a genius!”

“I’m a what now?” Sokka blinked, before finally processing what she had said “Oh, yeah, total genius.”

Katara rolled her eyes “I’m the only waterbender in the South Pole, but what about the North? Maybe the Northern Water Tribe has some waterbenders- ones that can teach me!”

“How are we going to get to the North Pole? We can't exactly go in ol Skippy here,” He pat the side of the canoe. “And Gran Gran isn't going to like the idea. It’s dangerous.”

“Well the Fire Navy ship is gone, and as long as we stay in Earth Kingdom waters, we’ll have their protection.”

“Because earthbenders love that sweet sweet water.” Sokka leaned back in the canoe a bit. Despite how nit-picky he was being, he had to admit that he was excited at the idea of going to the North Pole. “That doesn't solve the boat problem though.”

“I’m sure we have more war boats…” Katara trailed off, not even completely sure. It's not like they took all of them, right? But maybe they did. “Or something. Dad wouldn't have left us helpless.”

“Alright, alright,” Sokka started to steer the canoe around, heading back to the village. “We’ll ask Gran Gran. If she thinks it's a good idea… then we’ll go.”

Katara had trouble containing her excitement, so she distracted herself by looking at the way the canoe pushed the through water, studying it. She wondered if she could learn anything from how water naturally flowed, how anything pushed and pulled it. 

They made landfall, unloading the canoe and bringing the very small haul of fish back to camp. Sokka apologized on behalf of the both of them for not bringing back more, but they were swiftly forgiven and thanked for bringing anything back at all.

“How are we going to do this?” Katara whispered to Sokka as they walked towards their hut, where they assumed Gran Gran was. “Are we going to just… ask?”

“I don't see why not” Sokka shrugged. “How else do you ask someone for something.”

They reached the entrance to their family’s hut, and Katara was utterly terrified. She stared at it, watching the fur used to cover the entrance blow in the wind, and trying to take deep breaths along with it as it moved.

“We don’t have to ask if you’re going to be this scared about it.”

“No, I have to go, I have to learn waterbending,” Katara took a step forward, entering the hut, and greeting her grandmother. “We’re back, Gran Gran.”

“Oh, Katara, Sokka” Kanna stood up, offering a hug to her grandchildren. They gladly accepted. “How was fishing?”

Sokka rubbed the back of his neck. “Well, it was less than ideal.”

“I was able to catch a fish with my waterbending!”

Kanna frowned “Katara, waterbending that far away from the village is dangerous, especially with that Fire Navy ship on patrol.”

“Actually Gran Gran, the Fire Navy ship left this morning,” Sometimes, Katara silently thanks the spirits for Sokka. “It looked like it was heading back to the Fire Nation.”

“Oh? You saw this happen, Sokka?” 

“Well,” Sokka looked over at Katara, who motioned for him to continue. “Yeah, I was at the edge of the village keeping watch when I noticed the Fire Navy ship heading in the direction of the Fire Nation. I told Katara before we went fishing, we were going to tell you as soon as we got back.”

Katara used this as her opportunity to ask the important question “Because we want to go to the North Pole.”

Kanna looked at her grandchildren. Katara, with more hope in her eyes than she had seen in the years since Kya died, and Sokka with determination in his face. “The journey to the North Pole is a dangerous one. Especially with the threat of the Fire Nation looming over your heads.”

“We’ll stay as close to the Earth Kingdom as we can,” Sokka started.

“Yeah, and we’ll come home as soon as I master waterbending. If we have a master waterbender, I can protect the tribe with Sokka, and I can train future waterbenders,” Katara continued, holding her hands together in front of her chest. “Please, Gran Gran. This might be our only chance.”

“Hmm,” Kanna thought of her own journey from the North Pole to the South Pole, and just how much it had changed her life. “Sokka, will you protect your sister?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Sokka did a warrior's salute, although slightly crooked. 

“And Katara, will you protect your brother?”

“Of course,” Katara bowed her head slightly.

“Alright then. You may leave in the morning. After a full night's rest, and a feast to mark your departure.” Kanna nodded. “And you’ll have to get a boat ready, won't you?”

“Oh, thank you Gran Gran!” Katara couldn’t help herself, wrapping her grandmother in another hug. “I won’t let the tribe down.”

The next morning, they had the entire tribe sending them off, as if they were real warriors heading out to help in the fight against the Fire Nation. And they were, in a way. They had pulled a war boat that had been put out of commission but was still perfectly usable to transport people, and Sokka had been given a crash course in how to steer it from a few of the elders. They had been stocked with more than the siblings thought they were going to need, and insisted until the very end that it would be of better use with the tribe, but no one would budge. Eventually, Katara and Sokka relented, deciding getting an early start just in case the Fire Navy ship returned was a better use of their time. 

Katara still couldn’t believe it. They were heading for the North Pole. She was going to learn waterbending.

Things were finally starting to look up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For all those asking about Sokka and Katara :eyes: here you go


End file.
